With emergence of new water safety and conservation technologies, there is a tremendous demand for remote operation of water valves in residential and commercial buildings. Replacing the existing valves with a readily available motorized actuator valve is costly and requires services of a professional plumber.
Presently, there is no product available in the “do it yourself” (DIY) market to retrofit an in-service ¼ turn lever handled water valve with a motorized actuator. Existing products require shutting off the water or making modifications to the valve that would require the services of a professional plumber or the like.
The far majority of in-service water valves in North America are “one quarter (¼) turn ball valves with lever handles” (see FIG. 1). The size of these valves vary between ½″ to ¼″.
This invention enables the DIY homeowner with help of basic tools (screw driver, plyers, etc.) to retrofit an “in service” ¼ turn lever handled ball valve with a motorized actuator without disturbing the flow of water or otherwise modifying the valve.
Additionally, this invention allows manual operation of the valve without dismantling (or dismounting) the attachments to the installation
The retrofit kit is designed to be used with most manufacturer's products in a pre-defined pipe size range.